Dunedin's Hillside Workshop has marked the production of its 500th rail wagon since production began in March 2024.
Hillside is KiwiRail’s main heavy maintenance facility for the South Island, where KiwiRail maintains its locomotives and wagons, and builds brand-new wagons in its purpose-built assembly workshop.
KiwiRail Chief Metro and Capital Programme Officer David Gordon visited the workshops yesterday and congratulated the team on reaching the major milestone. The goal is to assemble a total of 1500 wagons, at which point the workshop will transition to focus on wagon maintenance and refurbishment.
Despite industry-wide challenges over the past 18 months, including global supply chain disruptions and skilled labour shortages, wagon production has remained consistently on track.
“KiwiRail’s wagon assembly operation is the only one of its kind in New Zealand, designed to meet the specific needs of New Zealand’s national rail network,” says Mr Gordon.
“Building and maintaining wagons requires specialist rail skills, which are not widely available in the local market. We've responded by developing these capabilities in-house: recruiting, training and upskilling a dedicated workforce.”
The wider impact has been significant - reducing reliance on overseas supply chains, increasing local capability, and boosting regional employment.
“Significant Government investment enabled KiwiRail to transform an old rail plant into a modern mechanical facility, allowing us to better deliver for our freight customers and grow rail in the South Island and the rest of New Zealand.
“Our purpose-built facility not only supports domestic manufacturing, but also enables us to retire ageing wagons, reduce maintenance costs and improve performance for our freight customers, and for their customers.”
Every year KiwiRail moves 17 million tonnes of our customers’ freight. Its vision is to be the first choice for customers as a trusted and sustainable partner in moving freight and people. Having a modern, efficient fleet is key to realising that vision.